Retail alternatives are gaining a groundswell of interest, becoming a rapidly emerging sector of the asset management industry.
A recent paper titled "The Retail Alternatives Phenomenon" published by SEI points out that the sea change presents a whole new opportunity for private fund managers.
Assets doubled since 2008
Retail alternatives refer to alternative strategies packaged in vehicles that provide daily (in UCITS, at least twice monthly) pricing and liquidity. Ideally, alternatives are structured as mutual funds in the U.S. and UCITS in Europe, but they may also be packaged as ETFs or managed accounts.
According to the SEI paper, assets in the U.S. alternative mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds have more than doubled since...

